"To discover to the world something which deeply concerns it, and of which it was previously ignorant; to prove to it that it had been mistaken on some vital point of temporal or spiritual interest, is as important a service as a human being can render to his fellow creatures..."
John Stuart Mill, "On Liberty"

Thursday, December 31, 2009

Since January of 2009 It has been my singular pleasure to put 262 posts up on this site. Interviews and conversations and links covering every aspect of this momentous year. From the inauguration of our 44th President, to issues of politics, economics, pop culture, the environment, the arts, technology and so much more. I have tried to make the interviews I have done a sort of drift net for catching ideas and knowledge and stretching it out through time and space in ever-widening spools. The fact that just about everything else swims into the net, legal questions and sartorial questions and culinary questions and agricultural questions and calendrical questions and epistemological questions, is all part of the excitement and entertainment of the process of dialog.

It’s easy to see that our ideas of community, culture, perhaps even our notions of what constitutes a country, not to mention how we communicate, do business, read, think and see, are being transformed by the vast networks of ideas and information that are cascading in upon us. E.O. Wilson coined the term “consilience.” Wilson believed that "a balanced perspective cannot be acquired by studying disciplines in pieces, but through the pursuit of the consilience among them." This is the dream that everything we are leaning will fit together into a single overarching vision. That it will enable us to comprehend all of our ancient, modern and post modern philosophies, all our arts and sciences, all our experiments, and all of our innermost feelings that drive us to try to look ahead. It’s the guiding principal of the work I've tried to do. To enable each listener to act as a mirror, each with a unique angle of vision to catch the narrative and creative energy from the pull of what is said.

Particularly with respect to journalism, "the power of the spoken word still exists as a medium of revelation. Long after the burning bush burned out and the pillar of smoke dispersed, words were still the messengers." Today, these spoken words are like the stars in the sky. You are never sure if their sources are still on fire somewhere far away or have gone cold long ago.

My goal continues to make sure that the cacophony of these selected voices continues to be heard….that the fire never grows cold and that the effort to find ourselves inside a sea of competing voices goes on and on and on....

I thank all of you who have listened to and shared these conversations. Your support has been both comforting and inspiring. As we enter this new year, this new decade, I'd love to hear more feedback from all of you as to what you like, what you'd like to hear and see more of and how I can better improve this experience.

About

I grew up during the Kennedy Presidency. It was a time when the best and the brightest sat center stage in the nation's psyche. I've always remembered the story, that at an arts gala at the White House, Kennedy looked around the room and proclaimed it "the greatest gathering of talent since Thomas Jefferson dined alone."
Without the benefit of such trappings, I've had the opportunity, for the past nineteen years, to have a seat at an international banquet of ideas and history.
My radio program provided me a unique opportunity to "travel" around the world and speak to thousands of the most imaginative thinkers and leaders in the arenas of politics, religion, journalism, business, popular culture, academics, science, economics, history, and medicine.
During these years, I have taken many people with me on this journey. It has been a momentous time. The trauma of politics, the onslaught of technology, the insights of science, and the changes in the human condition make this a period almost unequaled in history. I'm excited that technology has now made it possible for me to take more of you along with me on this journey.